Feds Backstop CA's Weak Sentencing of Gun Criminals:  The State of California has some of the toughest laws restricting gun and ammunition ownership and purchases in the country, but the penalties for criminals with guns are so soft, District Attorneys are allowing the worst gun criminals to face prosecution under federal law.  Barbara Harvey of Cal Matters reports that while Governor Newsom noisily signed 15 gun safety laws this month to limit possession of firearms by the law abiding public, the sentences for criminal  possession of firearms have been weakened by reforms aimed at keeping criminals out of prison.  Under California law a criminal with serious priors caught in possession of a firearm might serve a 3 year sentence in prison or county jail with half off for good behavior.  Under federal law the same criminal faces 10 years in federal prison and must serve 85% of that sentence before being considered for parole.  As a result, District Attorneys are partnering with U.S. Attorneys to have the worst gun criminals prosecuted in federal court under Project Safe Neighborhoods, a program initiated by President George W. Bush, abandoned during the Obama Administration, and revived by the Trump Administration.  U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott, whose jurisdiction covers 34 California counties from Bakersfield to the Oregon and Nevada borders, said that his office is aggressively prosecuting "people with lengthy criminal records, prior convictions for crimes of violence.....because those are the problems in these communities."  A bill to increase the sentence for criminal possession of a firearm died last year in the Assembly Public Safety Committee, chaired by Los Angeles Democrat Reggie Jones-Sawyer, who opposes any bill that would add prison time.